


A Snowbird Story

by RaceCloud



Category: RWBY
Genre: Developing Friendships, F/M, Humor, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:20:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23887339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaceCloud/pseuds/RaceCloud
Summary: Takes place during the good times of Volume Seven. Two scenes of Qrow and Winter bickering, but eventually becoming more meaningful as they get to the heart of their dislike for each other. Things are kept pretty much within canon. This is just what I would've liked to have seen between them at some point. Something like this, anyway. It's got humor and heart. At least I hope so. Should be good for a laugh, I can assure you of that.Rated T for minor swears and probably some other lightly inappropriate stuff. I kept things PG-13. Please excuse the grammatical mistakes. I think I got them all, but I've never been good at editing my own work. Missing words and misspellings mostly.Features Qrow and Winter, with Clover in a supporting role and Ruby and Yang in a brief cameo appearance.
Relationships: Qrow Branwen/Winter Schnee
Comments: 5
Kudos: 49





	A Snowbird Story

“Qrow!”

The lanky huntsman stopped in his tracks and took in a deep breath, releasing it slowly.

“QROW!”

Clover raised an eyebrow.

“You know, I think she’s talking to you,” he said coyly.

“I was hoping it was a hallucination,” Qrow said. He turned on his heel to face the rapidly approaching specialist holding a data pad.

“Winter!” Qrow called out loudly with barely contained apathy. “What brings you here?”

“Why haven’t you been filling out your mission reports?” she snapped at him, coming to a solid stop in front of him. Even though she stood much shorter than Qrow, she still radiated dominance and authority. Qrow found it adorable. And annoying. Mostly annoying. Like most of everything she did.

“I didn't know it was your job to make sure I was filling out my mission reports,” he said.

“It’s not,” she scowled. “But you keep dodging the people I send to remind you to fill them out.”

Qrow looked at her quizzically and then looked at Clover.

“You have,” Clover confirmed. “Also I’ve told you to do it three times myself.”

Qrow shrugged.

“Sorry, not a paperwork kind of guy.”

“We’re all paperwork people here, Qrow,” Clover said.

“And you had better get with the program!” Winter barked.

“I don’t really see that happening,” Qrow said, dismissing the issue with a wave.

“It had better because I’m not going to tolerate your arrogance while you’re here!”

Qrow thought to respond immediately, but instead he shut his mouth and looked bemused at Winter. He crossed one arm in front of his chest, balanced an elbow against it, and held up his chin in the palm of his hand.

“Winter,” he started. “What happened to us? Remember five minutes ago when we hadn’t talked for a long time? I miss that about us.”

Winter scoffed and shot him a sarcastic, snotty grin.

“Me too,” she agreed.

“I mean seriously, there could’ve been entire volumes of epic literature written with us not talking to each other. The stuff of legends.”

“So why don’t you fill out your reports so we can get back to what we do best?”

Qrow rolled his eyes dramatically and sighed deeply.

“Alright. Fine. But I’m only doing this to save our deeply meaningful friendship.”

“Excellent. Thank you,” Winter said curtly and spun on her heel to walk away.

As she strut down the hall, Qrow called out, “Hey later on today you want to avoid each other and not share a coffee?”

“I’ll be there!” She shouted back.

“It’s a date!” He said with a friendly wave as she turned the corner.

Qrow turned back to Clover to see a look of deep confusion on the Ace Ops leader’s face.

“We mean the world to each other,” Qrow said plainly.

“I can see that,” Clover said, the edge of a chuckle gracing his words.

“Come on, we better hurry,” Qrow said, starting to walk again. “Plus, you gotta get around to sending me a copy of your last mission report.”

Clover cocked an eyebrow.

“Why?”

“How many missions have we gone on? Something like thirty-six?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m gonna send that last report to Winter thirty-six times with my name on it.”

“Qrow.”

“What? It’d be funny.”

“She would literally kill you.”

“Still would be funny though.”

* * *

“QROW BRANWEN!”

The talk Qrow was having with Ruby and Yang came to sudden screeching halt. Ah, his full name. He smiled at his nieces.

“You better run, kids,” he said. “Daddy’s home and he’s got the belt.”

Yang winked, pulling Ruby away, who gave her uncle the quickest of long sped-up goodbyes.

Qrow turned to see Winter storming straight for him. It had been three days since they last spoke. Qrow had not wasted that time. And now he imagined Winter had caught up with his work.

“How may I help you today?” he asked, crossing his arms in mock innocence.

“What. Is. THIS!?” She shouted at him, shoving her data pad in his face.

He looked at the screen intently, tutting a bit, before nodding and grinning.

“Looks like one of my mission reports,” he said.

“This is a recipe for edible underwear!” she hissed quietly at him.

“Yeah, our missions got pretty graphic,” Qrow said thoughtfully. “Why, did the Ace Ops reports not mention any of the parts I mentioned? That’s weird…”

“You also sent me a report that was just the word ‘report’ five hundred thousand times!”

“You counted! That means a lot to me. Took me all night to write it.”

“They’re all nonsense! There’s instruction on how to whittle a wooden chair, a grocery list, oh, and my personal favorite: an exact transcript of the last conversation we had.”

“That was the most harrowing mission I’ve been on since coming here,” Qrow said grimly.

Winter stared at him stone-faced.

“Does acting this way really make you happy?” she asked coldly.

“Only when it makes you unhappy,” Qrow said with a smile.

Winter gave him a bitter scowl.

“Pathetic. You’re the same arrogant drunk you’ve always been,” she spat. “And here I thought maybe you had improved yourself in your travels.”

Qrow’s smile fell from his face.

She shook her head in disappointment and walked away.

“I don’t know why I ever expected better from you,” she added under her breath.

Qrow stood dumbfounded for only a second.

“I’m sober now!” He shouted at her.

Winter turned around to face him but continued to walk away.

“Wonderful!” she said, throwing out her arms. “So that means you have no excuse for why you’re a horse’s ass!”

She turned back around and continued her brisk walk to somewhere far away from him.

Qrow stood dumbfounded again, this time for a bit longer than before. Shame and regret eventually bled into annoyance and anger. He chased after her.

“Excuse you!? I’M the horse’s ass!?” Qrow shouted at her from half a hallway away.

“I’m pleased you’re mature enough to admit it!” Winter shouted back, not slowing down for a second. He increased his pace and eventually caught up, matching her heated march.

“Let’s get one thing straight, missy! I only give you crap because you’re the only one giving it to me! I get along with everyone else here just fine!”

Winter finally came to a stop and turned to face Qrow.

“Firstly, if you call me ‘missy’ again, I will rip the tongue from your head and burn it! Secondly, you only get along with everyone else because no one is willing to call you out on your piss-poor attitude!”

“MY attitude is fine! It’s YOU that’s the problem!”

Winter pointed to herself.

“Oh, it’s ME is it!?”

“That’s right! Have I gotten any complaints from anyone else!?”

“No!” Winter shouted. “You haven’t! According to the Ace Ops, you’re a model huntsman, a natural leader, and a paragon of righteous behavior! Have I ever given a negative impression of my attitude to anyone else!?”

“No!” Qrow shouted back. “Everyone says you’re tough, but you’ve never actually dished out any harsh punishments because you’re passionate about improving your subordinates rather than mistreating them, and you care about everyone around you!”

“That’s right, I do!”

“WELL SO DO I!”

“THEN WHY ARE WE YELLING AT EACH OTHER!?”

As Winter’s words finished echoing against the walls, she and Qrow finally took in their surroundings to see they were standing in a large entrance hall, surrounded by a crowd of on-lookers keeping a fearful distance from the two.

“GET BACK TO WORK!” Winter commanded with brutal authority crisp in her voice.

There was an awkward mad shuffle as the crowd dispersed. Qrow grunted and gestured off to a side room where they might talk in private. Winter went in without making eye contact with her shouting mate. Qrow followed closely behind.

When they got in and shut the door, Qrow crossed his arms and got really interested in looking at a spot of the ground four feet away while Winter collected herself and straightened her uniform.

She cleared her throat. Qrow looked back up.

“Look…” Winter started with an even voice and gaze, “I’m…” She then sighed, her gaze and voice softening. “…I’m *glad* to hear that you’re sober now.”

“Thank you,” Qrow said flatly.

“My sister informed me of your… *spiral* while you were escorting them, and it is good to see that you have pulled yourself out of it.”

Qrow tensed.

“Did she… mention *why* I was spiraling?”

“She didn’t have to,” Winter said. “Losing Ozpin at Beacon and then losing him again in that train crash without question must’ve been… difficult for you. It’s been difficult for the General. I can empathize with losing the guidance of a leader. If I ever lost General Ironwood, I would certainly be at a loss as well.”

“Right…” Qrow said carefully, untensing.

“Not to mention a run-in with the Apathy would shake anyone to their core.”

“Also that, yeah,” Qrow agreed.

“So then why continue being a horse’s ass?” Winter asked with genuine frustration.

“I don’t know… I thought it was our thing. I thought you enjoyed it.”

Winter hummed to herself meaningfully, searching her feelings for the truth.

“…Perhaps a little,” she said. “Never consciously, but why else would I play into your goads time and time again. And I imagine you enjoyed seeing me furious with you.”

“…Perhaps a little,” Qrow said with a shy crooked smile.

“But did doing that ever really make you happy? *Truly* happy?” Winter asked seriously. “Because I know playing into your nonsense all the time doesn’t truly make me happy. Whatsoever.”

Qrow frowned meaningfully.

“No,” he said quietly. “I supposed it never did. Not really.”

“And I know I don’t enjoy someone always making me the buffoon. Do you enjoy having someone always nag you every step you take?”

“Also no.”

“Then why are we doing this to each other?”

No answer. At first. And then…

“Because I think you can be better than a lapdog.”

Winter looked at him sadly.

“Do you honestly think that little of me? Of the General?”

“Sometimes,” Qrow admitted. “He IS a friend. Hell, he’s… like a brother. But the way I am, that kind of thing comes with the territory. I’ve never been big on authority.”

“You had no problem following Ozpin for all those years.”

Qrow rubbed his knuckles and remembered the sting of punching Oscar.

“Yeah, well, that’s… complicated. And look, it isn’t that you follow Jimmy, it’s how you do it.”

Winter cocked an eyebrow. Qrow continued.

“He’s a good man, but he’s not infallible. You gotta think for yourself. You kowtow to everything he says without question. Like a puppet. That’s not healthy. You’re better than that.”

“You know me so well, do you?” Winter asked.

“You’re not that hard to figure out, Ice Queen,” Qrow said smiling. “Everything I screamed back there in the hall was true. You’ve got heart, brains, strength. More than almost anyone else I know. If we had more huntsmen and huntresses like you, well… a lot of my friends would still be alive.”

Winter was silent, looking at her feet, considering his words. She looked back at Qrow with a hesitant grin.

“…Almost anyone else?”

Qrow chuckled.

“Yeah, afraid I’m gonna have to give my former traveling companions the edge over you. Your sister among them. I think you can agree with that.”

They shared a smile over their bond with Team RWBY and their allies. That genuinely warmed Winter’s heart. It was the first time Qrow had ever made her feel anything this good. She saw in him what the Ace Ops had been describing, what her sister described after their ruin-in with the Apathy. All the good things the General had said of him for years.

“But you waste all of that by following Ironwood like a brown-nosing toadie,” Qrow said.

The warm feeling faded.

“You’re better than that,” Qrow said sternly. "When you do that, everything you are? It’s wasted.”

“I act that way because that is what you do in this kind of military structure. I follow because the General is worthy of my absolute loyalty.”

Qrow raised a finger.

“No one is worthy of that kind of loyalty,” he said.

Winter tipped her head to the side.

“Not even Ozpin?”

Qrow felt the sting on his knuckles again.

“Not even Ozpin. I had my limits with him.”

“And I have mine with the General,” Winter assured Qrow.

Qrow looked at her more seriously than she’d ever seen him before. His gaze grew dark and foreboding.

“You sure about that?” he asked her. “What if it came down to him or your sister?”

“It would never—”

“Because if it ever came down between him or my girls? I love Jimmy, like I said the man’s like a brother to me, but I know where I’d stand.”

“It would NEVER come down to that,” Winter repeated and finished.

“You can go through life with a lot of hope, Winter,” Qrow said. “Some of the best people I know have done that. *Are* doing that. But you shouldn’t go through life never expecting the absolute worst things to happen. Because they will. And they’ll be more horrifying than you can possibly imagine. Trust me. You need to think about the consequences if something like that ever happens.”

“If something like that does,” Winter said quietly. “We may be too far gone for anything else.”

“Maybe,” Qrow agreed.

The two were then silent. Lost in thought. Winter leaned against a table opposite Qrow.

“Well if I’m no better than a lapdog, then you’re no better than an arrogant pissant strutting around like cocky child,” Winter retorted.

Qrow cringed inwardly. He knew that was how he was treating her.

“You know those reports are important,” she continued. “They provide statistical data, research data, Grimm movements, training information. Do you think the General and I sit on the edge of our seats with bated breath awaiting your reports and pour over them like a mystery novel hot off the presses?”

Qrow just leaned against a table and took the scolding. He knew he deserved it.

“Well we don’t. They get passed along to people who keep track of the things I mentioned. We don’t need to read your reports because we already know you’ve met our exact expectations of you.”

“Expectations for me, huh?” Qrow said.

“That’s right. Competent. Intelligent. Daring. And… heroic.”

Qrow looked at her, a little confused.

“That’s what you expect from me?” he asked.

“It’s what I did when I first heard of you,” Winter said. “The General spoke of you like a hero of legend. Difficult and brash, but ultimately every measure of a noble mythic warrior.”

Qrow felt pride build in his chest.

“Jimmy said that, huh?”

“And yet in all the time I’ve interacted with you, you’ve barely lived up to that standard,” Winter snapped.

The pride fell away.

“But since coming here…” Winter started. “…I think you can be that hero. And when you don’t live up to what I know you can be… it annoys me. More than almost anything.”

“Hmm,” Qrow hummed thoughtfully. “Guess we’ve both been a disappointment to each other.”

“I suppose so,” Winter echoed.

The silence between them returned.

After a while, Winter shook the chill from her bones.

“You know,” she said, “I don’t know if I prefer you sober.” She smiled at him, teasingly.

Qrow smiled back, knowing what she meant.

“At least Drunk Qrow was never this… soul-crushing.”

“Now you know why I always drank,” Qrow said wryly. “Had to drown out those thoughts somehow.”

“It… helps to share them with someone,” Winter suggested.

“Well Clover’s been a good listener. But I’ve never been good at sharing,” Qrow said, scratching his scruffy face.

“You were also never good at being sober,” Winter pointed out. Qrow shrugged and nodded in agreement. “And practice makes perfect. If Clover isn’t available and you ever need someone to discuss matters with… I wouldn’t be opposed to a talk. As long as you keep as civil as you have been.”

Qrow looked at her with mild shock.

“Did we just become friends?” he asked amusingly.

“Shut your mouth,” Winter warned.

“We did! We just became besties!”

Winter scoffed and shook her head, starting for the door. But when she pushed away from the table she was leaning against, the leg gave way, collapsing the table and throwing her off-balance. She would have fallen, but Qrow shot out, grabbing her waist tightly and keeping her upright. Winter balanced herself by clutching his chest.

Qrow looked down at the young specialist he held in his arm while Winter met the gaze of the seasoned huntsman. She always thought his eyes were red, but upon closer inspection they were softer. Lighter. Almost pink. And incredibly sad. He saw the coldness he always found shielding her eyes to be gone, replaced with a flickering shine of warmth. Winter’s eyes were not frosted with an icy blue. They were a pale blue fire, burning low and with purpose.

“That would’ve been embarrassing for me. Thank you,” she whispered.

“Well, I’m used to it,” Qrow whispered in return. “Things like that are always happening around me. Bad luck, you know.”

Winter broke their eye contact and pushed away, Qrow releasing his grip without a fight.

“There’s no such thing as bad luck, Qrow,” Winter said straightening her uniform.

He barked with laughter.

“I think forty years of experience would suggest otherwise,” he said.

“I think you’ve simply misinterpreted your semblance,” Winter explained.

“Misinterpreted? As what?” Qrow asked.

"Maybe with a form of luck you don't understand," Winter offered.

"You just said there was no such thing as luck."

"I said there was no such thing as *bad* luck," Winter clarified. "There are only things you don't account for."

"Yeah, sure... So if I don't have bad luck, what kind of luck am I confusing it with?"

Winter bent down and picked up the table leg.

"Perhaps... perhaps *good* luck," she said wistfully, placing the leg atop another table. She smiled at him thoughtfully.

Qrow said nothing. The two of them left the discussion at that and Winter continued towards the door.

“Hey,” he said.

She looked back at Qrow.

“One-page reports. Double-spaced.”

Winter smiled.

“That’ll be fine.”

“Also…” Qrow added. “…Coffee later? We’ll argue more. It’ll be fun. What do you say?”

“How about tea instead?” Winter suggested.

“I can do tea,” Qrow agreed.

Winter nodded and stepped out into the hall.

“I CAN’T BELIEVE WE’RE FRIENDS NOW!” she heard Qrow call out from inside the room.

Winter beamed and shook her head as she walked away.

“Fool.”

**Author's Note:**

> Well there it was! Hope you got a good chuckle, maybe a tug or two at a heartstring. Let me know what you thought in the comments.


End file.
